To be or not to be
Third-Person PoV:
Piper furrowed her eyebrows as she tugged at the stalks of grass that rested in the soil, she was currently on her break helping to plan a wedding seeing as Zeus was a stubborn asshole and all previous plans had to be adapted to their situation. Love truly was a beautiful thing, coming in many shapes and forms and shown in various ways. The combinations of this were endless and that is what made love truly unique to each couple, whether there's two, three, or more.
Piper wished her love-life could be like this. She felt terrible, they've fought in a war together for the Gods sake, she should only feel positive emotions towards them, be glad and grateful that they were a couple of steps closer to their happy ending. To reach that point of peace and no more disturbances that they were finally going to be together forever. Yet here she was, Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite, Goddess of beauty, love, desire, passion, sexuality, pleasure, and fertility was jealous. Yes, she was jealous of Percy and Annabeth because their love came so naturally to them, it was something that she craved for like it's what she should be breathing instead of oxygen. She wondered whether she felt like this because she was a daughter of love or if it was genuine. Either way, she wanted what they had, but she had no idea how.
She nervously glanced up at the couple, who were going over colours with Butch, who knew he was so into colour theory, then again his mother is Iris, well it was more like Annabeth was, Percy was fine with whatever she wanted and he was too busy playing with a strand of her blonde hair while throwing grass at Thalia who threw some back. The girl hoped that they couldn't sense her guilt and her jealousy, what a horrible friend I am, her thoughts crowded her senses and she almost didn't hear Annabeth.
"-do you think this colour will be fine with the dresses Piper?"
"What?"
Annabeth's forehead creased slightly between her eyes as she fixed Piper with her stormcloud eyes, "We were just talking about what colour the dresses for the bridesmaid should be, are you alright?" Her question seemed to catch the attention of the rest of the group, she suddenly felt like she was being put in a spotlight like she was back with her father, and the cameras were flashing, blinding her sight. Rapid. Overwhelming. Bright.
"I-I'm good, just zoned out for a couple of seconds, what colour did you pick?" Her eyes swirled green as she attempted to cover herself.
"You sure as Hades aren't okay, what's got your hair in knots?" Clarisse grunted, her brown eyes prodded into hers, daring her to try again. Reyna raised an eyebrow at her from where she was sitting between the daughter of War and the daughter of Lightning.
"You wanna talk about it Beauty Queen?" Leo's hand's picked at the orange and black tartan trousers that he wore. The daughter of Aphrodite bit her lips, should she say it? But she didn't want to appear like a bitch, or heartless, she wanted to simply understand and how she could overcome and fix this. But a lot of people that he was close to were there, she was hesitant and terrified to even open her mouth. How could she word it?
"How do you do it?" She turned back to look at Annabeth, the blonde raised an eyebrow, an embarrassed blush coated her cheeks.
"Do what exactly?" Her voice was soft as she prodded the reddened girl on.
She swallowed the lump that was forming in her throat and continued, "Just make it so natural? Like it's second nature. How do you know that your memories of him aren't fake and then yo-you get so confused and scared when he doesn't remember what you remember and then you're terrified that what if what you're feeling for him isn't real as well when you want it to be- how?" Piper didn't realize that she was crying, she hadn't noticed the tears that streaked down her warm face, her irises swirled in a storm of colours in her panic to rush out her speech.
Ozone, pine trees, and the ever faintest trace of strawberries. Everyone at Camp Half-Blood had a trace of strawberries in their natural scent, no matter how often they visit Camp. It was still home and will always be a part of them.
Thalia, hugged her tight, rubbing a hand in circles on her back as her tears soaked into her cloak. "Hey, calm down, take some deep breath's. You kinda lost me half way through." She chuckled at the end, they all sat in silence for a few more minutes as Piper calmed down and recollected herself. "You wanna start again now?" The brunette nodded at the ravenette. Thalia let her go and scooted back giving her hand a brief squeeze.
Even though she had just bawled onto her boyfriend's sister's shoulder Piper still looked gorgeous, she had always been a pretty crier. "It's just that...." she paused for a couple of seconds as she rethought what she wanted to say. "I-I keep getting confused. I keep confusing the Jason that the Bovine majesty put in my head and the Jason that I know." Percy and Leo struggled to keep in a snort of laughter at the girl's title to Hera, Annabeth let loose a small smirk, thunder rumbled overhead in the skies.
"Sometimes I can't tell which memories are even real and it scares me because what if I don't actually love Jason when I want to. I just want to know how it all comes so naturally to you both when, when," her voice faltered for a split second, "when it doesn't come so naturally for us?" Tears welled up in her eyes again as she hung her head in shame. A hand rested on her shoulder.
"You know it didn't really come that easy to us at first, Gods you should've seen us in our first week of dating," Percy snickered, Annabeth nudging him with her shoulder, face shaped into a mock glare.
Leo did a spit take and Piper raised her head in shock. "What really!?" The Latino stared at them with wide eyes. Clarisse snorted and shook her head.
"Gods it was annoying, even more infuriating than watching them dance around each other for four years. I was so tempted to just throw them in the lake again." A hand dragged across her face as if the memory pained her.
"Though it was kinda funny to watch." Butch shrugged at Clarisse who pulled a face.
"Well good thing you didn't. And it wasn't my fault it was awkward, some people were just too oblivious." She snarked. Percy folded his arms.
"Wasn't my fault that you're harder to understand than an Oxford dictionary."
"Why would you even be read-"
"I think what Percy was trying to say," Thalia threw the bickering couple a look as they quietened down, Annabeth stuck her tongue out at her, "is that it still took them time to become comfortable in a relationship, it's different for everyone."
"Yeah, sounds like we might need to have a conversation with Cowpat to properly remove the mist, if not we could ask Lou Ellen to see what she could do. But it sounds like you really should have a conversation with him Piper, communication is always good in friendships especially relationships."
"Maybe you guys could try being friends first?" Leo questioned.
"Good relationships are often built upon great friendships, perhaps you should get to know him as a friend first, create new memories with him. Jason will understand, if not come to me." An evil glint shone in Reyna's eye.
"B-but what if I realize that I don't like him in the end, I don't want to hurt him." She whispered the last part.
Clarisse stared at Piper for a moment, but it was like she was looking past her, or looking at someone that wasn't her, "Fuck. This reminds me of Silena and Beckendorf." Her mouth was grim and her eyes watery, they all stilled and an atmosphere of melancholy settled around them. Piper and Leo sat in anticipation, it was like when they first arrived at Camp Half-Blood and no-oned to dared to speak of Percy. They knew very little about their dead half-siblings. Reyna watched them all curiously.
"Beckendorf always carried around a picture of her, they were gonna last forever." A few stray tears slipped from Percy's eyes.
"And they will, in the Afterlife, together." There was a moment of silence.
"Wh-what were they like?" Leo was the first one to break it. He had heard that Beckendorf was the person before him that had fixed Festus and he went berserk when he died.
"Later. Maybe in our Common Room, we could all share stories about them. I'm- I uhhh I don't want to talk about Silena right now but later." Clarisse grunted, Leo and Piper nodded, it was understandable, Clarisse was clearly close with her, it's not easy to talk about friends who had died.
"Now what colour were you thinking about again?" Piper rested all her thought about Jason at the back of her mind and focused more on what they were previously discussing, Annabeth's eyes lit up, her hand forcing Percy's back down that was about to throw a grass ball that he had just made at Thalia.
"The dresses for the bridesmaid we were thinking of having them in a shade of blue." The blonde picked up three small pieces of blue fabric swatches from in front of Butch. "Which one do you think would be better: sky, teal, or cerulean?"
"Definitely teal, it looks good on just about everybody."
"It'd go well with coral or cantaloupe, the Groomsmen can wear that colour." Butch nodded his head.
"What color should we set the tables and rest of the decorations as? Sea green and grey?" Percy asked.
"I like that, and everyone has to wear some sort of orange on them, like jewelry or a scarf." Annabeth's pen flew across her papers of notes. "Any I don't think there should really be a colour code or theme, not like the Gods would listen." She huffed.
"Have you guys thought about a venue? It's got to at least let everyone stay for three days." Thalia said, using a dagger to cut the heads off of flowers that were growing around her.
"No we haven't, perhaps Cedella knows, we can talk to her later."
"Why three days?" Leo frowned.
"We were thinking of doing a traditional wedding. The Ancient Greeks has their weddings spaced out between three days." Percy responded.
"The first-day was Proaulia, this is when sacrifices were done to specific Gods and Goddesses in preparation for the month. I'm going to hate January, having to give sacrifices to Hera throughout the month." Annabeth spat her name like she had eaten something bad, her face morphing in disgust. "The first day is finished by a meal at each of the couple's childhood homes separately, which is going to be a problem seeing as we can't get back to the US. The next day is Gamos, the day starts with the couple taking a nuptial bath, they spend the rest of the day getting ready. The actual ceremony begins at night, there a few customs and rituals are done then the couple goes into a carriage where their friends and family throw nuts, fruit, and coins at them. Once the couple has left everyone else parties. The last day is Epaulia, this is when all of the gifts are presented and stories are exchanged."
"Wow, the Greeks really did go all out with their weddings," Leo mumbled.
"It's quite nice actually, having a wedding occur in a single day seems too rushed to me." Reyna shrugged and stood up. "We should leave our next period starts soon." They gathered their belongings and rose up from the ground and began the short trek towards the castle. They made small talk in quiet voices as they took powerful strides through the corridor. They split up as they reached the labyrinth of stairs and made their way to their lessons. Piper, Frank, and Thalia had already split from the group before they entered the Castle to walk towards Hagrid's hut.
"When do you plan to speak to him?" Thalia blurted out. Piper turned to look at her, a bit thrown off.
"Who?"
"Jason duh. The sooner the better." Piper found herself biting her lips again.
"Maybe at lunch, or some point today." Frank and Thalia seemed satisfied with her response and they continued in silence towards the hut where a few Gryffindor's and Hufflepuff's were already standing, gathered outside a greenhouse, they all stopped once they were standing roughly in the centre of the small group gathered. There wasn't much chatter but Piper did notice Harry and Ron with scrunched up faces standing the furthest they possibly could from the Hufflepuff's, Hermione making polite conversation with Megan Jones and Wayne Hopkins about how the Muggle and Wizard world differ. Either Hermione was very into the conversation or she simply chose to ignore the poisonous looks that Ron was drilling into the back of her skull, Piper chose the latter.
Now, this was a development, the Golden Trio separated? Piper cocked an eyebrow at Frank who's lip quirked up faintly, Thalia winked at her. We really don't have to do much to get the houses to come together. The daughter of Aphrodite was now curious about how this happened. Maybe there was hope for this community, for all the demigods knew they might have been no need for them to intervene in their war at all. Knowing Hermione, it's possible that Daphne challenged her with accurate knowledge, real facts to question her thought and points that she would make. That would've swayed the bookworm to actually look and interpret the situation properly and without a bias.
"Your lesson's good?" Connor sidles up to them with Will, Katie was talking with Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott, who shyly talked with her, Hannah red in the face.
"Yeah, Percy and Annabeth are planning their wedding again, would've been nice to do it at Camp." Thalia frowned slightly, eyes trained on the floor. Professor Sprout walked over to the milling students.
"Greenhouse 3!" She yelled at them, she continued walking and the Hufflepuff's and Gryffindor's followed her. Once inside the students began to take a seat, Katie and Will sat together, Hannah and Susan found seats to the left of Katie. Frank, Thalia, Pollux and Piper sat respectively next to Will. The rest of the students settled down and focused their attention on Professor Sprout.
"Since we revised how to plant Mandrakes last lesson, it would be best if we were to do some Theory on Mandrakes today. Parchment and quills out please." A small groan circulated the greenhouse as the students ruffled through their bags to pull out some parchment along with their quills and ink pots. Unlike the other students the demigods pulled outlined notepads and biro pens, no-one else seemed to notice.
"You should all know by now that Mandrakes have properties that allow them to be used in restoring transfigured or cursed people back to their original forms. You should also know how the cry of a Mandrake at different stages in their maturation." Professor Sprout placed a pot onto the table, a small plant was sprouting from the top of it, occasionally moving around. "Does anyone how it's determined if a Mandrake is fully matured?" Hermione's hand and a few others went up, but Katie was first, the Hufflepuff Head indicated her head towards the brunette.
"When they start climbing into others pots, they want to communicate with other Mandrakes since they've been in a pot alone from the start of their lives," Katie murmured the last part but it was heard clearly throughout the quiet greenhouse.
"Correct Miss Gardner, 10 points to Hufflepuff and an extra 5 for the extra facts." Her Hufflepuff classmates gave her thumbs-ups and a wide grin, the daughter of Demeter smiled smugly to herself, Hermione frowned slightly wondering why she hadn't read that in a book before. Hannah gave Katie a gentle pat on the pack in congratulations.
"Mandrakes tend to have similar behaviours that humans have, when they reach adolescence they get moody and secretive and even grow acne. In O.W.L exams they like to include a few questions on what properties are in Mandrakes so make sure you have these notes written down." The scratch of quill against parchment and one against paper filled the quiet room, Susan looked at Katie for a second when taking her notes and paused noticing that she wasn't using a quill and parchment.
"Katie, why are you using a....pen and paper is it?" Her meant to be whispered attention caught the rest of the class's attention and the Professor, they had now noticed that the American's weren't using the usual writing equipment for class, small blotches of red rose on Katie's cheeks before she recollected herself.
"Probably think they're too good to use what we 'commoners' use," Ron muttered under his breath to allow Harry to hear who shoved his bony elbow into the redhead's ribs, the young wizard let out a small noise of discomfort. When Ron opened his eyes he was met with the fierce piercing gaze of Thalia's electrical blue eyes, Frank simply gave him a side-eye, his eyes sharp and predatory, Ron gulped and quickly looked away.
"That what Muggles use to write Ron!" Harry hissed into his friend's ear, Ron let out a small 'oh' as Katie responded to the question.
"Our parents decided that using pen and paper to take notes during our lessons would be the most practical method to achieve the best possible education." Her back straightened, her head held up high, an aura of confidence seemed to surround her reminding the four Gryffindor's that had seen her at the Wyvern's the power she displayed with the single rejection of aiding them in the incoming War. Reminding the students of Hogwarts that they weren't just any seemingly powerful wizards and witches from America but they are Royalty whose parents display even more capability than they do.
"As long as you all get the notes from class I'm fine with it." Professor Sprout nodded at the Princess. She cleared her throat and continued her lecture. "Mandrakes are a part of the Nightshade family, containing hyoscyamine, scopolamine, and mandragorin. Because of these properties, Mandrake can be used as a painkiller and a sedative however too much can lead to a fatal overdose."
"Do you think we could grow some at Camp? I want to know if it would have any effect on demigods." Will whispered to Katie still focusing on Professor Sprout as she talked, his lips barely moving as he showed no indication that he was talking.
"We could maybe see if we can have some shipped to Camp or samples of it in sedative and painkiller form. If not I'll just pray to my mum to see if it would work and if there are any differences in how it would affect our body compared to Wixen." Katie replied, her lips open just the barest slit, her voice reaching just Will, Frank, and Thalia.
Before they knew it the end of the lesson came, Professor Sprout told them to keep up to date with revision and they'll be looking at a new plant next lesson. The plant's gravitated towards Katie and Will as they left, reaching out their branches in a desperate attempt to touch them. The group walked from the greenhouses and across the grass towards the doors that lead back to the Castle for lunch.
"Seems the Golden Trio has broken up," Thalia muttered to them.
"I heard some rumours that they had an argument in the library, apparently something about forgiving people, I think it was the Slytherin's," Pollux said that made their eyebrows raise.
"This trip just gets easier ya'll, I was gonna say something but with our luck, we'll just end up jinxing it." Will shook his head as they all let small chuckles rake their body.
"I wonder if Hogwarts would permit us in using pen and paper for writing other than parchment and ink cause you guys use it." Cedella walked in step with them Salem poked his pearly snout out from the top of her saddlebag a small puff of smoke with a reddish tinge leaked out.
"Knowing that Pink bullfrog I doubt it, the Ministry might bend themselves over to please us but I doubt they'll do anything that may be Muggle related." Cedella hummed at Thalia's words.
"That reminds me, Cedella Percy and Annabeth wanted to talk about you for possible venues for their wedding here in the UK. King Thunderpants won't allow Percy or any of the other Princes or Princesses that aren't his fly back until the end of the school year." Piper said to the girl.
Her eyes lit up with a rare excitement, her usually expressionless creased with emotion. "A wedding? I best get started then, they must have the best wedding if I can help it, they're perfect together!" She skipped off in her own world, humming something to herself, barely sparing a wave at Jason as she passed him.
"Hey Jace." Thalia ruffled his hair and followed the skipping girl into the Great Hall. Frank gave Piper an encouraging look before the rest of them went past the doors.
"Hey Pipes, ready to get some lunch." He grabbed her hand and was about to turn around and follow the rest of the demigods but Piper tugged him back, he looked back at her, sky eyes zeroing on her face that gazed at the floor.
Piper couldn't believe that she was about to do this, she took a deep breath in and then released it, she swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat and straightened herself to meet Jason's eyes.
"Jason, we need to talk."